Obscurorant 2.0

Lucky thirteen brings us back to New York. Thirteenth in a series of fifteen.

Krovatin, Christopher (2005). Heavy Metal And You. NY: Scholastic. 186 pages.

Evaluation and summary: Sammy Markus is a high school student who really likes two things: heavy metal music, and getting fall-down drunk with his friends.  All is well in his world, until he encounters something, or rather some one, else that he wants – Melissa. Pretty soon Sammy’s life is filled with conflict.  He spends most of his time with Melissa, who convinces him to quit drinking and smoking. She doesn’t much care for his friends. Sammy’s friends in turn don’t much like Melissa; they she’s not only stolen their friend away, but turned him into some one he’s not in the process.

I grabbed this one from the shelf because of the title and  it made me feel old.  I was a teenage metalhead, so I figured I’d get the musical references.  Not so much. For one thing, I was a teenage metalhead over twenty years ago, and was never really much into thrash, unlike Sammy. The only band we shared fondness for is Judas Priest. I also noticed  Sammy’s tendency to cry, something I don’t recall the male protagonists doing in the YA books I read when I was actually a YA.  Maybe things have changed and young men in YA literature are more sensitive?  Or perhaps the crying was just a result of this author’s vision for the character? Either way, it pointed out the fact that I come from a generation with different social mores when it comes to male displays of emotion.

Booktalk hook: I didn’t dislike this book, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it.